Trade & FA 2024-25:

[DanSchwartzgan]

Amazing stuff today, Dan, thanks!

Just for my edification, could you lay out how/what would make a Grant trade, specifically, possible?

I’m traveling and don’t have my spreadsheet.  So, I can’t get too specific.  Also, there are too many variables to your question to answer easily.  Do you want to retain a shot at keeping DJJ?  Are you going to do something that hard caps you?  How many outgoing players will be required to match.  Each one over one has to be replaced with at least a minimum, so the trade may be technically legal, but might leave you with no way to get the roster legal.  Will there be any other salary reducing moves?

FG has laid out a pretty good framework for all of this as we are pretty close to the apron as we stand. So unless we do a separate salary reducing move, we almost have to trade in a way that we bring back less salary than we send.  THJ and Green don’t get you there for Grant.  So, you have to add salary or do something else to reduce salary to get further away from the apron.  Doing something else to reduce salary might allow you to trade match with less outgoing.  But then you’ve hard-capped yourself and have to start figuring how to finish the roster and stay under the first apron.

With Grant in particular, you have the further problem that Portland is also fairly tight to the apron (not to mention guard heavy).  A good rule of thumb is going to be that the salary you bring back has to be less than what you send out.  If you want to keep DJJ, it has to be WAY less than what you send out or you have to clear cap in a second deal.